How To Find Your Dragon
by rebel rayne
Summary: FemHiccup! Hicca has never quite fit in and the only close friend she has ever had doesn't speak to her anymore. Her life is turned upside down when she hits a Night Fury out of the sky and begins to befriend the dragon, learning everything the village of Berk knows about dragon is wrong. FemHiccupxFishlegs (because, why not?) I don't own HTTYD! OPTIONAL PROLOGUE!
1. Prologue (optional)

**So, before you start reading, here are a few things you should know.**

**1. This is a prologue. It is the way the movie starts and is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. I just wrote it because I thought some people might to read it. It's one of my favorite parts of stories like this on ffn. Some of it is from the actual script (the speech Hiccup gives).**

**2. This is a FemHiccup and Fishlegs story. I've got it worked out in my head but I'm still working out some kinks. I've seen HiccaXmaleAstrid and HiccaXTuff so I thought I'd get a 'Legs one out there.**

**3. I'm terrible with Tuffnut so please excuse some slight OOC on him, if there is any at all.**

**4. I don't own HTTYD, this includes anything from the movie and book. If I did, I would definitely be living it up in LA or something.**

**5. R&R? It's lovely :) Anyways, feel free to skip the prologue if you'd like. It'll start when Hicca leaves to find the Night Fury.**

**Prologue**

_This, is Berk. It's twelve days North of hopeless, and a few degrees South of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the meridian of misery._

_My village. In a word, sturdy. And it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests._

_You see, most places have mice or mosquitos. We have…_

A large fireball blew out from a large dragon's mouth, making its way towards a door. It is quickly shut by a petite brunette whose eyes widen nervously. Her arms out across the wooden door but they are not long enough to cover the entire frame. "Dragons…"

She opens the door slowly, peaking her thin head out and sprinting out into the open after seeing the dragon had fled the scene. There is chaos everywhere. In every corner, there is a Viking fighting a dragon of his or her own and they are all oblivious to her running through the village for only a few moments.

_Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues…_

_My name is Hicca. Great name, I know… But it's not the worst! Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that._

_Meet the neighbors. Hoark the Haggard…_

A meaty but short Viking man stares at Hicca as she speeds past him. "What are you doing out?!" Hoark yells to her, but she obviously ignores this.

_…Burnthair the Broad…_

Another male Viking notices the small Viking running as if a blizzard had just begun and was trying to return to their home. "Get inside!" Burnthair ordered.

_…Phlegma the Fierce…_

A woman following Burnthair echoed his order. "Get back inside!" she agreed.

_…Ack…_

Ack says nothing. In fact, he just stands there doing nothing as well. He stares off into the distance, dumbfounded.

_Yeah… Just Ack…_

A large Viking grabs ahold of Hicca's vest and picks her up. His red hair matched his anger as he stared at her. "Hicca?!" he yelled. He looked around at the crowd. "What is she doing out?!" He looked at her again, impatient for answers from the others, not to mention there really wasn't time to wait for one. "What are you doing out?! Get inside!"

_That's Stoick the Vast. Chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off its shoulders. Do I believe it?_

Stoick picked up a stray wooden cart from the street and whirls it into the sky with ease. The sky shrieked with pain as a stalking dragon tumbled from the night.

_Yes I do._

"What have we got?" Stoick asked a Viking to his right sternly.

"Gronkles," the man continued. "Nadders, Zipplebacks… Oh, and Hoark saw a Monstrous Nightmare."

"Any Night Furies?" Stoick questioned quickly.

"None so far," the man answered.

"Good," Stoick replied, somewhat pleased with what the Viking had provided.

Hicca runs into a small shed-like building. The walls are lined with shiny metal and wooden handles of unfinished weapons. The building window shutters are open, showing the massacre of dragons like a well-constructed Berk Schooling play. A man stands over a forge, hammering away at a metal. He is missing a leg (replaced by a wooden peg) and a hand. He has numerous hand replacements on the wall, ranging from weapons to forging tools.

"Ah!" the man exclaimed. "Nice of you to join the party. I thought you'd been carried off." His thick accent is apparent, sometimes he uses slang that Hicca can hardly understand.

Hicca throws an oversized leather apron on her body and ties the strings around her body. She must wrap them around to her front side so the apron doesn't become loose and hook onto anything while she is working. "Who, me?" she laughed. "Nah! Come on, I'm just way too tender for their taste." She walks over to the table that is holding weapons beyond any Viking's dreams. "They wouldn't know what to do with all this!" Hicca throws her arm up and pretends to flex.

The man turned his head. "They need toothpicks, don't they?" While he laughs at his own joke, Hicca gets to work. She picks up a few of the weapons on the table that are obviously in need of repair and begin to decipher how to fix them.

_The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I've been his apprentice ever since I was little. Er, well… Littler._

Hicca's train of thought is interrupted by booming sounds. She whips her head towards the windows and sees wood flying around a block of smoke. Once the smoke clears, only one lonely wall stands where a handsome house once stood.

_See? Old village. Lots and lots of new houses._

"Fire!" Hicca heard an older Viking man scream. She runs to the window to see what building had met his fate only to see four teenagers, two girls and two boys, holding medium sized buckets, ones that she could only hope where filled to the brim with fresh water.

_Oh and that's Astrid, Snotlout… The twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. And…_

A significantly bigger teen runs behind them with a bucket twice the size of the others and throws the water onto the burning building heroically. His blonde hair peeps through the bottom of his helmet, much shorter than the other two boys' hair. Hicca puts her elbow on the window sill and sighes dreamily.

_Fishlegs…_

Before she can go into detail about Fishlegs, she is picked up by her vest once again. She groans. "Come on!" she pleaded. "Let me out, please. I need to make my mark!"

"Oh, you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places," Gobber chuckled.

Hicca's face filled with red, she was easily embarrassed. "But-" she paused. "Please! Just like, two minutes! I'll kill a dragon!" She walked back to the table, following Gobber like a newborn sheep follows its mother. "Gobber, my life could get infinitely better and a guy might actually ask me out on a date!"

Gobber lifts his hands and begins counting on his real hand. "You can't lift a hammer," he said. "You can't swing an axe…" He picks up a random weapon without looking. Hicca knew it was a bola, this only further proved she needed to get out of this forge as most of the people on Berk didn't know the technical term for the weapon. "You can't even throw one of these!"

It was true that Hicca was weak compared to the other teen Vikings her age, even the other females. She slips past Gobber. "Okay, fine," she paused as she lifted a brown cover off of one of her infamous inventions in the corner of the forge. "But this will throw it for me." As she lifts up her brilliant masterpiece, it shoots out an arrow accidentally. She gasps as it makes its way towards Gobber but it misses. She relaxes her body and breathes.

Gobber puts his hand to his face and sighs. "See," he said. "Now this right here is what I'm talking about." Gobber had been very supportive of Hicca ever since she was small. He was the father figure she looked to whenever her dad was out on fishing trips for the village, or sometimes she only went to Gobber because she felt he understood her more than her own father did. Still, he didn't like the contraptions she made. Mostly this was because the majority of them didn't work or left the village even more damaged after a dragon attack.

Hicca shook her head, trying to defend the invention. "Mild calibration issue," she replied.

"Hicca," Gobber said. "If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all…." He pauses and waves his hands about. "This…"

Hicca's face grew angered. "But you just gestured to all of me!" She puts her invention down and folds her arms, pouting.

"Yes! That's it!" Gobber exclaimed. "Stop being all of you."

Hicca dropped her arms and smirked. "Oh you know, you're playing a dangerous game," Hicca continued. "By keeping all of this pure Vikingette caged!" She picked up a dagger and made a few moves that she thought would look impressive, or somewhat intimidating. "There shall be consequences!"

"Ah, well how about you start by sharpening that dagger?" Gobber replied.

_One day I'll get out there. Because killing a dragon is everything around here._

_A Nadder head is sure to get me at the very least, noticed. Gronkles, they're tough. Taking one of those down would definitely make the boys in the village want to be around me. But a Zippleback? They're exotic, exciting. Two heads, twice the status. And then, there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire._

_But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one has ever seen. We call it the…_

A Viking male screams from outside the forge. "Night Fury!" he yells. "Get down!" A large KABOOM lands on the ground, wood spinning all over the village from a once beautiful standing house, its fate sealed by the Night Fury.

_This thing never steals food, never shows itself and… it never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That's why I'm going to be the first._

"Man, er watch the fort, Hicca!" Gobber said as he looked out the opening. "They need me out there!" He trades out his hammer hand for an axe replacement and charges out the door. He turns around in the frame before leaving, stopping dead in his tracks. "Stay. Put. There. Well, you know what I mean." He disappears in the smoke.

Hicca smiles after a few moments, being sure that Gobber wasn't returning any time soon. She grabbed her latest creation and slipped out the door, going as quickly as she could to the nearest cliff. A neighbor screams out at her, "Hicca, where are you going?!"

"I'll be right back," Hicca yells over her shoulder, trying not to drop her invention that she had worked on for hours upon hours. She stops and clumsily sets up her station. The invention sits up on three legs, it is facing upwards and is able to move from side to side. "Come on," Hicca said to herself. "Give me something to shoot at… Gimme something to shoot at…" She jumps when she hears a booming sound behind her and pulls the trigger when she sees a black blur, that looks much smaller than most of the other dragons, fly past her in the gray night sky. A moaning sound echoes in the distance and Hicca stutters over her words. "I-" She said. "I-I hit it! Yes!" Hicca jumps up and down, celebrating like she was at a village gathering and had just drank four mugs of mead. "Did anybody see that?" She spins around to see if anyone was around when she hears a growling in back of her. She turns around slowly, hoping to see Snotlout playing a joke on her. In front of her was a big, red dragon. His snout alone was bigger than her body. A Monstrous Nightmare. "Except for you…" Hicca said. She screamed and began to run the other way.

It was hard for Hicca, a fairly short female to outrun such a large dragon like a Nightmare. She glanced behind her to find him on her heels. She screamed again, running past Astrid and Fishlegs, who immediately put on the defense. Great, as if Fishlegs didn't think she was a loser already. She tried to put this out of her mind as she hid behind a big brazier. The dragon stalked behind it and went to go around it when Stoick leaps in between Hicca and the dragon.

The dragon growls fiercely at Stoick, who jumps onto it and begins to wrestle with it. The dragon throws him off and Stoick picks himself up. He positions himself into a fighting position when the dragon opens its mouth and attempts to defend itself. The dragon burped up a few lava-like bubbles and purred for mercy. "You're all out," Stoick said unmercifully. He punches the dragon in the snout, which sends it flying for its life. Stoick turns towards the brazier as it tumbles over and begins to roll helplessly through the village.

_Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know…_

Once the brazier had fallen, Hicca was found standing behind it like a coward. She put her hands behind her back and stared at the ground. "Sorry, Dad…" she said to Stoick. Fishlegs stood behind him in the distance. Hicca's face turned bright red, and it wasn't from the brazier.


	2. Chapter One

Hicca's head hung low as she walked up the small hill that overlooked the not-so-peaceful village of Berk. She glanced over her shoulder to see the sun peaking over the hill to greet the semi-destroyed village. Dragons ruined Berk but at this moment, she felt no better than one of them after a Monstrous Nightmare chased her through the paths of Berk. She had spent her whole life feeling like an outcast but it didn't seem like all that long ago that she had someone she called a friend by her side but things changed…

"I really did hit one," Hicca insisted as she was walked to her house as if she was a prisoner by Gobber.

"Sure you did, Hicca," he said laughing. Sometimes Hicca felt as if Gobber was the only one in the entire village that listened to what she had to say, regardless of if he believed it or not at least he would listen to her. Even with that however, he didn't believe in her. She didn't have anyone like that anymore.

"No one ever listens," she said. "Not even my own dad listens to me."

Gobber opened the door for Hicca, motioning her to go inside her house. "Well," he paused. "It runs in the family."

Hicca stopped in the door frame. "Even when he does listen to me, it's always with this disappointed scowl. Like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich." She sighed and turned around. "Excuse me, barmaid," she mimicked her father's voice. "I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms. Extra guts and glory on the side." She couldn't even muster another word. Her father had been quite clear around the village that he was disappointed in the fact that Hicca was female.

"Hicca," Gobber continued. "You know your father loves you. Don't be so naïve." He looked over towards the village. "Go inside and stay out of trouble. I need to go down and help the others clean-up the village. I'll see you around, Hicca." Gobber closed the door. She was alone. Again… And then she remembered.

"The Night Fury!" she exclaimed excitedly. "This will show my dad I can handle myself." She began to walk towards the back door of her house when she heard a soft knock on the door. She groaned. "I'm still here," she yelled in an agitated way. "See, Gobber?" She opened the door to find a large Viking standing there but it wasn't Gobber. "Fishlegs?" she questioned. "What are you doing here?"

Fishlegs' mouth moved but no words came out. The two of them hadn't had an actual conversation since two winters ago, right before he stopped speaking to Hicca and began to hang around the other teens in the village. He fiddled his fingers between the spaces in his hands nervously. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay," he said. "You know, because that Monstrous Nightmare was really chasing you."

Hicca couldn't help but feel a bit angered by Fishlegs' question. What did he care if she was okay or not? Not that she couldn't say she wasn't a little excited that he did care… She didn't really know how to feel about Fishlegs standing at her door. Her heart had been cut in two with the dagger she should have been sharpening back at the forge instead of trying to catch the Night Fury. "I can handle myself," she replied with her hand on the door.

"It didn't really seem like it at the-" Hicca cut Fishlegs off.

"Well, I can," she said coldly. "I'm busy right now, Fishlegs." She didn't even think about it, she just shut the door in his face. She leaned against her door and let herself fall onto the ground. Yeah, she kind of liked Fishlegs but she had ever since they were kids. He didn't seem to notice, he was just a big oaf. She planted her face into the palms of her hands and sat there for a few moments. The first time they'd spoken in forever and she had completely blown it. Was she wrong? He was practically saying she couldn't handle herself and sure, the dragon was chasing her but she was unarmed. Maybe she could have gotten her hands on a sword and had fought off the dragon. She was just tiring him out. She had to get out of here, she had to prove herself.

The forest had become Hicca's safe place. Whenever she felt as if she couldn't take things anymore, she came out and sat on her favorite rock and drew whatever she saw. Maybe it was a cloud one day or a small squirrel running around on the forest floor the next. She didn't have any friends in the village so she had to find ways to entertain herself. She held up a self-drawn map of the forest she had made a while back and drew small X's on it. "Gods, why do you hate me?" she asked the sky. "I mean some people lose knives or mugs but oh no, I lose a whole dragon." She draws furiously on the map and hits her head on a low hanging branch. "Ugh! Ow!" she growled. She glanced up at the tree to find it had split in half, she looked over the ledge and dropped back down. "Oh my gods," she whispered. She peaked back over and walked down the narrow path. "I did it."

A jet black dragon lied helplessly on its side, tangled in the rope Hicca used earlier to catch a dragon. "I did it!" she screamed happily. The dragon shifts itself slightly while Hicca did her victory dance, causing her to pause and jump behind a rock. "What am I doing?" she asked herself as she walked back over to the dragon slowly, taking out her tiny dagger. "I'm going to kill you, dragon," she told the defenseless creature lying in front of her. "I'm a Viking." She lifted her shaking hands above her head while the dragon opened its large green eyes, begging for mercy. "I am a Viking!" she screamed out trying to convince the animal. She closes her eyes, trying to think of anything but the dragon's soft eyes. She found herself looking into them once more, and then the dragon admitted defeat and relaxed its head and closed its eyes.

She dropped her hands. "I did this…" she whispered to herself ashamed. "This isn't going to fix anything…" She kneels down and begins to cut the tightened ropes off of the dragon's body. She starts to cut the last of it when the dragon hopped up and pinned her against the rock. She stared at it the same way it had stared at her only a few moments ago, mercifully. He narrowed his eyes and sat silent. He finally roared an ear deafening threat in Hicca's ear before running off into the forest, taking flight over the small peak. She lifted herself up, only to fall again. She picked herself up and clumsily ran back to her house.

It was late; the sky was turning into a slate gray. Hicca looked towards the main hall, noticing that there was a fire still lit around the door. _Maybe he's still in there,_ she tried to tell herself. She opened the door to her house to find her father in the kitchen, it sounded as if he was trying to sharpen one of his weapons. He was in the zone, maybe she could get past him. She quietly made her way to the stairs, walking on all four to get up to her room as silently and quickly as possible. "Hicca," her father said without turning.

"Oh," Hicca said, standing up and turning around. She tried to make it seem as if she was coming down the stairs rather than going up them. "Uh, I have to talk to you, Dad," Hicca admitted. They spoke at the same time, something about fighting dragons. "You go first, Dad," Hicca insisted.

"Alright," Stoick replied. "You get your wish. Dragon training. You start in the morning." Stoick smiled, more proud of Hicca than he has ever looked in his entire life.

"I think I should have gone first…" Hicca said, grabbing her left arm. "Dad, I was thinking. There's just so many dragon fighting Vikings but do we really have enough sewing Vikings or crop picking Vikings?"

Stoick ignored Hicca's speech and grabbed the weapon he was busy at work with when she came in the door. "You'll need this," he said as he tried to hand her an axe.

"Dad," Hicca said. "You aren't listening. I don't want to fight dragons. I can't fight dragons."

Stoick shook his head. His red beard swayed the opposite direction of his motions. "Get some rest. You'll need it tomorrow," he said. Hicca knew that there was no way she would be able to hurt a dragon, especially seeing how human the one she saw today was. His eyes spoke to her in a way that no one else ever had. Every time she would be forced to kill a dragon, she would see those big innocent eyes staring back at her. "Train hard, Hicca. I'll be back, probably. I've left a few directions with Gobber if you need anything." He headed out the door, leaving Hicca more upset than she was when she made a complete fool of herself the night before with the Monstrous Nightmare. She closed her eyes, trying to imagine how it used to be when it didn't matter if you had killed a dragon or not. You pretended to be a Viking warrior as a kid and it was all enough. She hunched over, walking up the stairs defeated and sat her body down on the bed.

"Welcome to dragon training!" Gobber announced as five teenage Vikings walked into the killing arena. Hicca walked behind them, hoping Gobber would start before she got there so she could just skip out on the training all together. It wasn't a great plan. She could hear the others talking amongst themselves but they all paused when Hicca let herself into the arena.

"Oh great," Tuffnut groaned. "Who let her in?"

Gobber ignored Tuffnut's question. "Let's get started!" he said. "The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."

"Well, Hicca already killed a Night Fury so does that disqualify her?" Snotlout laughed. Snotlout was Hicca's cousin, although the two would refrain from admitting that to just about anyone in the village. They didn't even look alike. Snotlout's family was huge like Stoick, in fact it was only Hicca that didn't look like she belonged. She had always felt that her father wished she was more like Snotlout, even with the obsessed-with-glory personality, he just wished she **was** Snotlout actually. Everyone laughed at Snotlout's joke except Fishlegs. Even Astrid giggled and she was the one who usually didn't think anything Snotlout said was funny. Fishlegs was just being nice. That's when she remembered the longer she was at training, the more time she had to spend with Fishlegs. Her heart leapt out of her chest but her brow furrowed angrily.

"Today is about survival," Gobber continued. "The species you'll be learning to fight today is the Gronkle."

"Jaw strength, eight," Fishlegs whispered to himself. It Hicca smile. Although the two of them didn't hang out the way they used to, he really hadn't changed. He was still as interested in dragons as ever, the same geek she had grown to love. Er, well you know what she meant by "love." She meant as a friend, of course. Nonetheless, at least there was one person she could count on to not join in on the festivities of really bringing her down for being forced into being in dragon training. Fishlegs jumped around in his spot, barely able to contain his excitement. His smile was even more contagious than she remembered.

Hicca hadn't even noticed during her day dream of Fishlegs that Gobber had let a brown, boulder-like dragon out of its cage. The Gronkle flew around the arena, happily stretching its tiny wings. "Like I said, today is about survival! If you get blasted, you're dead," Gobber yelled out to the recruits. "What's the first thing you're going to need?!"

"A doctor?" Hicca whined.

"Plus five speed?" Fishlegs asked, looking over at Hicca.

"A shield!" Astrid yelled out in an 'it's so obvious' way.

Hicca grabbed a small wooden shield. It matched her. It was barely big enough to protect any of the other Vikings but it would be just fine for her. The Gronkle shot at the twins. "Ruffnut, Tuffnut," Gobber yelled. "You're out!" The Gronkle stalked after Snotlout, who only seemed concerned with Astrid. Hicca had seen her cousin walking around town trying to get the girl's attention for the past three winters but he couldn't take a hint. Before he could even look the Gronkle's way, he was blasted onto his back. The Gronkle then turned its attention to Fishlegs. It seemed to have tenderness to it as it followed him around, like it wanted to be played with. It hopped excitedly as it plopped onto the ground. Astrid lifted her shield and threw a bola towards the dragon; it jumped into defense mode and shot a blast at Fishlegs.

It was only Astrid and Hicca left in the arena now. Hicca began to run towards a pile of logs but the dragon shot at her shield. It started rolling away from her, leaving her completely naked without protection. She immediately started running after it, which the Gronkle seemed to take advantage of. It pushed her against the wall and the mouth lit with red and orange. Hicca shut her eyes, admitting defeat but the dragon was pulled away by a hook. The Gronkle shoots its last fire ball at the ground, irritated.

"That's six!" Gobber said. "Go back to bed, ya overgrown sausage!" He threw the dragon back into its cage and turned to Hicca disappointedly. "Remember," he addressed to everyone while staring straight at Hicca. "A dragon will always go for the kill." He walked towards the exit. "Same time tomorrow, then. Off to lunch ya go."

* * *

Hicca returned to her safe haven: the forest. She glanced around the location she had found the Night Fury the night before. She bent down and picked up a few broken twigs that lied near the dragon's footprints. "If a dragon always goes for the kill," she muttered to herself. "Why didn't you?" Hicca lifted herself up and followed the trail and saw a few black spots on the ground. "Are these..." she paused. Picking one up, she immediately dropped it in shock. "Night Fury scales!" She followed their trail to a cove with a small pond in the middle. She glanced around. "There's nothing here," she said sadly. "He's probably back to where ever he came from by now…" She went to leave when she saw a black blur fly past her. She peaked around the corner to see the Fury attempting to climb up the large stone walls. "I don't get it," she whispered to herself. "Why doesn't he just fly away?"

Hicca pulled out her journal and began to doodle the dragon onto a blank page. She stopped at the tail, automatically drawing two wings on the dragon's tail. She used her hand to erase the ink and remove the half of the tail she had drawn that was not there. In the process of trying to fix her mistake, she fumbled her pen and it bounced on the stone walls on the way down and into the pond. She glared at the Night Fury, terrified. The dragon stared back with cold eyes, angry with her that it was stuck in this isolated cove. She got up and ran back into the forest.

* * *

Hicca let herself into the great hall, trying to be quiet but failed when the doors made a creaking sound. She closed them behind her and made a plate for lunch. She attempted to join the others but Tuffnut scooted over so there was no room on the bench. She walked to the table next to their and sat down by herself. She sighed as she listened to Gobber lecture the teenagers.

"Where did Astrid go wrong today?" Gobber asked the group.

Astrid pounded her fists onto the table. "I mistimed my summersault dive. It was sloppy and it threw off my reverse tumble." Groans grew amongst the others.

"Yeah," Ruffnut sarcastically remarked. "We noticed."

"She's right," Gobber chimed in. "You have to be tough on yourselves." Gobber turned to Hicca, noticing she was sitting off on her own. "Where did Hicca go wrong?" Hicca stabbed her chicken with a fork. Gobber obviously hadn't noticed that trying to help her was actually just setting her back from fitting in even more. He had set her up for some hurtful remarks.

"She showed up," Ruffnut mumbled.

"She didn't get eaten," Tuffnut added as he laughed.

"She's never where she should be," Astrid said in a teacher's pet kind of way.

Gobber clapped his hands together. "Thank you, Astrid." He dropped a thick book onto the populated table, making the recruits jump. "You need to learn this stuff, live and breathe it. This is the dragon manual; it's got everything we know about for every dragon we know of." He turned to walk outside, only looking back at the group to stare back at Hicca. She glared down at her food again angrily. She didn't listen to the conversation amongst her classmates. What was the point? She would never be accepted by them anyways.

"I guess it's just you and me," a voice said across from her. She lifted her head to find Fishlegs standing at the table with the Book of Dragons in his hands. "Have you read this?"

"No," Hicca said as she turned her attention back to her lunch.

"I've read it like seven times," Fishlegs admitted. "There's this water dragon that sprays water at your face. And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week..."

"That's all super interesting," Hicca said. "But I think it's best if I read things on my own. I can't think when people are talking to me." She didn't lift her head but she could see out of the corner of her eye that Fishlegs sat down across from her and pushed the book her way.

"You really hate me, don't you?" he asked.

"What makes you say that?" Hicca said as she jammed her fork into the chicken again. She looked up to find Fishlegs was taken aback by her behavior.

"I'm sorry, Hicca," Fishlegs said. "This wasn't my decision, you know."

"You had a choice to continue to be friends with me but you chose to just stop speaking to me," Hicca said. "Why didn't you even try to talk to me?"

"You're not the easiest person to talk to, if you haven't noticed," he replied. "It was stupid. I was stupid. I guess I was afraid you'd be really mad at me." He removed his hands from the table, they disappeared underneath it. "It's just that I was young and really shy about things."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Hicca asked annoyed.

"I'm getting to it," Fishlegs pleaded. "Truthfully, I had started to kind of like you and I just knew that we were going in different directions. If you don't remember, you were kind of going your own way too. I'd go looking for you and Stoick always said you had run off somewhere into the forest. I guess we both kind of lost touch…" Fishlegs sounded upset, or at least a little upset.

"I'm sorry," Hicca said.

"No, it's okay," Fishlegs replied. "I don't blame you for being angry. I'll let you read the book on your own. I'll see you in class tomorrow, Hicca." He stood and began to walk out the door. Hicca opened her mouth to call his name but she couldn't find the words. It was as if she had forgotten how to speak. She pushed her plate away and opened the book. Fishlegs had a crush on her, past tense. **_Had_**, Hicca told herself. She had blown it before it had even begun. She shook her head and opened the book. She turned to the page she had been most interested in and found nothing there. "Night Fury," she said. "Speed, unknown. Size, unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself." She followed the reading with her finger. "Never engage this dragon," she paused. "Your only chance, hide and pray it does not find you…" She pulls out her journal and throws it onto the table with the page opened to the drawing of the Night Fury from earlier today.

* * *

It was going to get late but there were answers she needed to get. She held a lantern in one hand and a shield in another. She climbed down the giant stone walls and held the shield up against her body. She glanced around the cove, it wasn't dark yet but she only had a few more hours. She hears a thump from behind her and spins around. She sees the Night Fury slowly walking over to her, curious. She lifts her vest and pulls out a fish after setting her shield down. She puts her hand out, holding the fish by the gills. The dragon begins to walk over by growls when her dagger is reflecting from the sun. She puts down the lantern and throws her dagger into the small pond. The dragon lets down his defense and walks over slowly. Hicca studies the dragon. "Toothless," she said. "I could have sworn you had…" The dragon's retractable teeth pierced through its gums and stared at Hicca ferociously. "Teeth…" Hicca finished her sentence. The dragon gobbled the fish up and walked closer to Hicca. "No," she said. "I'm sorry… I don't have anymore."

The dragon sat down, almost in a human-like position. He regurgitated half of the fish Hicca had given him and put it into her lap. He stared at the fish and back at Hicca, as if to motion that he wanted to share his food with her. She gulped, would a raw fish kill her? She lifted it slowly, the dragon nodded its head. "Ugh," she whimpered. She took a small bite of the fish and resisted swallowing for a moment. "Thanks," she said looking up at the dragon. "I was starving." She stands up and walks over to the dragon. He growls when she puts out her hand to touch his snout.

The dragon ran over to a tree and curled up underneath it. Once he was comfortable he looks over to see Hicca sitting close by. He growls again and moves his tail to hide his face from her. Hicca couldn't help but laugh at the dragon's mannerism. He was like a giant pet but had so much personality; he had a personality just like any human would. She scooted closer to him and tried to touch him but the dragon lifted his tail and growled at her again. She lifted herself up and walked over to a rock on the other side of the cove and admitted defeat.

She wasn't sure how to get the dragon to trust her. Maybe she was feeling a little upset because she had quickly given up on her friendship with Fishlegs when they were younger and didn't want to let go of something that could turn out to be the best thing she could have ever asked for. She looked over at the sleeping dragon, his inhales and exhales of breath made him look as peaceful as a napping cat. She smirked as she grabbed a stick next to her and started doodling in the rough sand. She heard loud footsteps from behind her as she drew the head of the dragon she had as company.

The dragon walked over and stared at her drawing for a moment before leaving her on the rock alone. She heard a cracking sound and turned to find the dragon returning with a limb of a tree. The dragon began scribbling lines on the ground just as she had a few moments before. He spun around, drawing all kind of lines and loops in the sand. He stood back, excited and happy with his work. Hicca smiled, astonished at the dragon's humanlike qualities. She stepped on a line of the dragon's art and he growled again. She lifted her foot, and then repeated herself. He growled. She laughed and lifted her foot, stepping around the lines the dragon had drawn. She wondered what it was supposed to be exactly. It had to be something, he was a quick learner and seemed to be intelligent. She was so busy admiring the dragon that she didn't notice how close she was to him. She accidentally bumped into him and turned around. She stared at him for a moment and the dragon snorts. "What are you doing?!" she heard a voice exclaim.

"Who said that?!" she spun around and around trying to find the owner of the voice. "It couldn't be…" She turned to the dragon. "Was that you?"


	3. Chapter Two

Hicca stared straight into the dragon's eyes. They seemed as confused as she was, maybe even more afraid than she could ever bring herself to be. "Was it you?" she asked hesitantly. She thought it would be worse if it was someone from the village. Not only would her father kill the dragon but he will kill her too.

"You can hear me?" the voice finally spoke. The dragon seemed to move along with the voice.

"So it was you…" Hicca said. "But how? How can I hear you?"

The dragon moved closer, his green eyes pleaded for explanation as well. "There is a myth," he began. "That one day, all dragons will meet a land dweller who will understand just them. The land dweller will be only that dragon's and vice versa."

"So you're saying that I'm your land dweller," she paused. "And you're my dragon?" Hicca paced around for a moment. She could have put a big rut in the ground but she stopped. "I think I need to sit down." Hicca felt as if she was going to faint. She stared at the black monster, who as it turns out isn't a monster at all. Everything she had ever known was completely wrong; her whole life was practically a lie. The green eyes pierced her thoughts and worried her. What would she do if someone from the village found out? Even Fishlegs wouldn't be too understanding about something like a dragon finding a companionship with a human but even worse, what if her father found out? She imagined the red haired Viking walking up to the dragon with an axe. **Her dragon**. "So," she said. "I guess we just found out that this myth isn't really a myth at all…"

"I would suppose you would be right," the dragon replied with a snort. She couldn't help but frown at the dragon's words. He seemed to have a bit of an attitude, it was like talking to anyone else in the village. She supposed she would have to get used to it if this wasn't a dream. She pinched herself to make sure. _Ow!_ She thought to herself. Nope, it wasn't a dream. Maybe she was hallucinating, it was getting late and she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.

"Well, I guess if we're going to be dragon and uh, land dweller, we should get to know each other," Hicca proposed. "I'm Hicca Haddock. What is your name?"

"I do not have a name," the dragon replied. "The other dragons do not typically exchange words with me but rather with other dragons of their own species. My mother, well, I never met my mother so I do not have a name."

"That is a little sad," she commented. "How about I give you a name?"

"It would be nice to have a name of my own." The dragon sat itself down in a human-like position just as he had before. "What will my name be?"

Hicca pondered this. She had never had a pet of her own but had thought of various names when she was a little girl and had always begged her father for a kitten. None of the names she had previously thought of in her head would be very suitable for a dragon. "How about I call you," she paused, thinking for a moment. "Toothless?"

The dragon tried to smile again, it was a bit creepy but it was also very cute. At least Hicca thought it was. "I like that name," he said happily. "I like it because it's mine."

Hicca noticed the sun was going down. It was a bit upsetting as this big news to walk away from. "Toothless, it's getting really late and I really don't want to leave but well," she sighed. "I need to go home and figure out how to get you flying again, not to mention how to get you more fish tomorrow."

"I understand, Hicca," Toothless replied sadly. "It would be nice to be able to fly again though… Promise you'll come back tomorrow?" Toothless walked over to Hicca but he didn't touch her or even graze past her. He stood a good arm's length away with pleading eyes.

"Obviously," Hicca laughed. "I have a dragon now, that's a lot of responsibility." She went to touch him, but he winced a little. She paused and just held her hand out, leaving the ball on his court whether or not it was okay with him. He slowly brought his head to her hand and pulled away quickly. It was a start. She smiled. "Good night, Toothless," she said. "I promise I will see you tomorrow." She turned and walked away, but not before looking back at Toothless one more time.

* * *

"Today is all about attack!" Gobber yelled from the top of the arena. A Deadly Nadder stalked the six teenagers in the maze. It was a vibrant blue with multicolored spikes on its tail and was most likely very aware of its beauty as whenever one of the teens held up an axe Hicca swore that she caught the dragon staring at its reflection in the axe blade. The large beauty sent its spikes whirling towards Fishlegs. He sprinted out of the way and caught one of the spikes on his wooden shield.

"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" he screamed at Gobber fearfully.

The twins found themselves fighting one another when the dragon found them at a dead end. "Why don't you get your own blind spot?!" Tuffnut yelled at Ruffnut, as if it was necessary to scream into her ear. Tuffnut was always over the top though, surprisingly to Hicca considering he was the male twin.

"If you weren't so fat, I wouldn't have to!" Ruffnut argued, causing the two to go at it physically and pushed both of them out of the dragon's blind spot. They ran past the dragon screaming.

"Blind spot, yes. Deaf spot, not so much," Gobber laughed at the twins.

"So, I noticed there isn't a lot of information in _The Book of Dragons_ about Night Fury," Hicca called out to Gobber. "Is there a little booklet lying around somewhere? A mini Night Fury manual, maybe?"

"Hicca, pay attention!" Gobber ignored her question as if it was too stupid to even answer.

Hicca didn't even notice the Deadly Nadder coming towards her and began running, but ran straight into Fishlegs. _Great,_ she thought. _Just who I was trying to avoid today!_ She shook her head and got up, noticing the Nadder had taken an extreme interest in Astrid. It mostly followed her around as if it was studying her, trying to get close enough to get a good look at her. Hicca took this time to grab Fishlegs arm and try to get him to move out from the open.

"Oh!" Tuffnut's infuriating voice spoke out. "Love on the battlefield!"

"He could do better," Ruffnut commented almost in a jealous way.

"Come on!" Hicca yelled to Fishlegs, who was fighting her and wanting to go his own way. She wasn't sure why she was so positive that the dragon had no interest in her or Fishlegs, especially if they didn't seem as if they were interfering with the dragon's primary interest: Astrid. "Would you just…" she stopped when she noticed the dragon coming their way and she dropped to the ground, she couldn't even bring herself to think she could hurt a dragon. She heard the obstacles of the maze crash all over the place as the dragon hopped over them and went to attack but not before Fishlegs jumped in front of Hicca and hit it in the nose with a hammer. The dragon shrieked and hobbled off and Gobber went to catch it. Fishlegs turned to Hicca but before he could say anything, Astrid stormed over.

"Is this some kind of joke to you?!" She yelled as she pointed a finger at Hicca. "Our parents' war is about to become ours!" She said as Hicca stood up. Astrid immediately pushed Hicca back down on the ground. "Figure out which side you're on, Haddock!" She turned around and said nothing else, the others followed suit.

Fishlegs offered his hand. "Need help?" he asked gently. Hicca hesitated for a moment but finally took it and he pulled her up. Hicca swallowed a lump in her throat, but could still feel she was holding back burning tears. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said as she pushed past him, or at least tried to.

"I don't think you are," Fishlegs replied as he followed her. "Hicca, wait!" He kept up his pace to keep up with her but he must have realized she wasn't slowing down, so he stepped in front of her. "Wait!" he said again. "Don't listen to Astrid. She didn't mean it, she just…"

"Just what?" Hicca replied coldly. "Just knows that I'm not cut out for this? I didn't even want to do the dragon training, my dad **made **me!" She tried to walk around Fishlegs but he clumsily stepped over just as she tried overtaking him. "Would you just let me go? I have things to do."

"What is your problem?" he asked. "I've tried to be nice, Hicca but you're making it a little hard."

"Then don't be nice." Hicca finally managed to find a way around Fishlegs and started to make her way towards the forge. She had work to do; she had to make a tail to get Toothless flying again. She didn't have time for whatever this was. She didn't even know why Fishlegs cared all that much about speaking to her; it wasn't like he had in winters. She heard footsteps stomping behind her all the way to the door. She spun around. "Are you following me?"

"Yes!" Fishlegs exclaimed.

"Why?" she said. "What do you want, Fishlegs?"

Fishlegs seemed to be shocked, his expression softened and his shoulders slumped. "Nothing," he replied. "Just forget it, Hicca." He turned and walked away. To be honest, her heart broke a little but she didn't have room in her life for someone who didn't care to talk to her until he was forced to be around her because of dragon training, which if Hicca has anything to do with, it won't be offered again after this. But still, she wasn't sure why she was holding this grudge against Fishlegs. Mostly, she was hurt. She didn't have any friends except him and he dumped her right when he got the chance to hang out with her disgusting cousin, Snotlout. She knew there was no way to get those sad brown eyes out of her head; it was something she was just going to have to live with today. She sighed and walked into the forge. She pulled out a piece of paper out of her pocket, rolled up her sleeves and started pulling out tools.

* * *

"Toothless?" Hicca yelled. "Where are you, bud? I brought you some dinner!" Hicca drug the basket of fish behind her. She hadn't expected it to be so hard to carry the new tail piece for Toothless and his dinner. _If only I wouldn't have been so mean to Fishlegs,_ she thought to herself. _Maybe he would have understood and helped me. _She immediately shook the thought from her head. Fishlegs was one of the teens that wanted to have the honor of killing their first dragon in the arena at the end of training, he wouldn't understand.

"Dinner?!" Toothless exclaimed. He ran over and knocked the basket over. "Uh! No, no, no!" He backed away frantically. "Eel! Dragons hate eel!"

"Oh," Hicca said. She pulled out the stripped eel and threw it into the pond. "I don't really blame you guys. It's not my favorite either." She made her way towards Toothless' tail and sat down on the ground next to it. "Hold still," she said as she put the piece on the ground. Toothless moved his tail excitedly as he ate up the feast that Hicca had brought him. "Toothless! Keep your tail still!" She grabbed onto it and strapped it on, fanning it out to have a better look at it. "Alright, let's try it out, what do you say?" Before she could stand up, Toothless took off, Hicca holding onto his tail for dear life.

"It's working!" Toothless said.

"Slow down! No! Go back down!" Hicca screamed as she fumbled with the tail, struggling to keep it open. Toothless probably couldn't even hear her. They went tumbling down when Hicca still wasn't able to grab onto it.

"Ow," Toothless moaned. "Great plan. Now what?"

"I think I know how to fix it," she said. "Same time tomorrow then. I have to get this fixed."

"Wait," Toothless said.

"Yeah, bud?" Hicca said with a confused look.

"Is something wrong?" Toothless asked. "You seem a little… Distracted."

Hicca was shocked. "How'd you know?"

"You're my land dweller, we're connected."

"It's just this guy-"

"I didn't know you had a boyfriend," Toothless said.

"He isn't my boyfriend, Toothless," Hicca said rolling her eyes. "He's just a friend."

"Well, this friend," Toothless said. "What is his name?"

"Fishlegs."

"What did Fishlegs do that made you so upset?"

"Just stopped talking to me and stuff, it just kind of hurt my feelings I guess."

"Well, why don't you tell him?"

"I don't know, Toothless," she said. "I need to go. It's getting late. I'll see you tomorrow, okay bud?"

"I don't think I will ever understand humans," Toothless mumbled.

* * *

_Maybe I should just go and apologize,_ Hicca thought to herself after seeing Fishlegs at dinner. She sat on her own as she usually does only today, Fishlegs didn't even bother to ask her how she was after Astrid and Snotlout laughed at her performance at training. She kicked a rock along the path in the village and tried to occupy herself. _I guess he's making an effort,_ she thought. _And I'm just not even letting him be my friend again. Maybe I'm the one in the wrong…_ She paused when she found herself standing in front of Fishlegs' house, which was on the way to her own. _I should just apologize._ She took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. She felt weak as she knocked on his door, like there was no way anyone inside would have heard that excuse for a knock.

"Oh," Fishlegs' mother, Britta Ingerman said as she opened the door. "Hicca, what a surprise. I haven't seen you at the door in ages. How are you dear?"

Hicca smiled half-heartedly. Fishlegs' mother had always made it pretty apparent that she had loved the two of them as friends but would constantly tease them about being married one day. Back when they were kids it used to disgust them but after a while, Hicca was a little hopeful of the idea. "Hi," Hicca replied shyly. "Um, is Fishlegs around?"

"Oh, well yes," she said. "He's around back; you can just walk on back there. I'm sure he wouldn't mind some company as he chomps the logs for the house." She paused before closing the door. "Hicca, come back sometime soon! Don't be a stranger; it's been so strange without you. I think Fishlegs kind of misses your friendship."

Missed her friendship? Hicca shook her head. She doubted that his mother would know if he missed her or not. Fishlegs was a nice guy but he wasn't really the 'talk about your feelings with your mom' type, just the sensitive type. But maybe Hicca didn't know him as well as she thought she had. She walked around to find his back turned, and really doing a number on the logs. She was positive it didn't take all of his strength for him to cut the logs in half, but there he was acting as if it was a whole tree. He seemed a bit angry. No, maybe a lot angry… "Fishlegs?" Hicca said softly.

He turned around and rolled his eyes. "Can I help you?" he said bitterly. He turned to the logs and began to put the axe to work again. "I'm kind of busy if you haven't noticed."

"Yeah," she said. "I'd hate to be a log right now."

Fishlegs didn't laugh. "Well," he said. "That's how I've gotten through this chore. Just been pretending this is your face." He chopped another log in half and Hicca jumped a little uneasily.

"I guess I deserve that…"

Fishlegs turned around. "So? What'd you come here for?"

"I wanted to," she paused, staring at the axe still in Fishlegs' overgrown Viking hands. She made herself look back up at his eyes. It was hard to even imagine Fishlegs mad but she must've really hit a chord. "I wanted to say I'm sorry… I was a jerk."

"I'm listening."

"It was both of our fault that we didn't stay friends but mostly mine, I did avoid you. I guess I was kind of… jealous."

"Why would you be jealous?"

"Because you were hanging out with Snotlout…"

Fishlegs laughed. "You were jealous of Snotlout?"

"I guess it does sound a little ridiculous," Hicca said with a small chuckle. "You were just my only friend, my best friend and it felt like you didn't want to hang out with me anymore and I guess I was just kind of sensitive because well…" Hicca remembered that Fishlegs had told her he used to have a thing for her but sighed.

"Well, what?" he said leaning in, hanging onto every word Hicca said.

"Nothing," she said. "It just hurt is all."

"Oh," he said disappointed. "That's it?"

"Um, yeah, I-I guess so," Hicca replied hesitantly. "So do you forgive me? Can we be friends again?"

Fishlegs nodded slowly. "Friends, yeah," he said. "Just friends, we can be friends."

"Okay," she said. "Well, I'm glad. I better get home, Gobber will probably come by to check on me soon."

"Alright," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess, uh… uh, buddy."

"Yeah…" Hicca frowned. "I'll see you tomorrow." She walked away and already felt bad about lying. She wasn't going home, she had to go to the forge while she knew Gobber was home sleeping (like he always did after dinner). Not even five minutes having Fishlegs back, and she was already hiding things from him.

* * *

**Okay so sorry it took a while to get up, I had to get something ready for my class because I have a one-on-one meeting with my professor. I am trying to do chapters weekly for this story and TBOR. I'll try to be on time next week though! Let me know what you think!**


	4. Author's Note

Hi everyone! Just a head's up, this update is the same for "The Book of Ruffnut" and "How To Find Your Dragon" so for any of you following both,you don't need to read it twice.

I just wanted to let you guys know I've been dealing with some personal things and also am in my last semester of college so my assignments are due in December. Unfortunately, I only have one assignment for each class and together, it adds up to 100 pages of writing. I am unsure when I will be able to update but I will as soon as I possibly can. I apologize profusely for this! I am a bit of a procrastinator so my assignments really need my attention before I can update either story.

Feel free to message me if you want updates on when I think the updates will be. I will still be sure to check my private messages but this isn't good bye, I do plan on returning and finishing both stories :)

Thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting and following!

Rebel


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